Exploring the Pharmacological Potential of Carrageenan Disaccharides as Antitumor Agents: An In Silico Approach

Carrageenans have demonstrated enhanced antitumor activity upon depolymerization into disaccharides. However, the pharmacological viability of these disaccharides and their mechanisms of antitumor action remains to be fully elucidated. This study aimed to employ computational tools to investigate the pharmacological properties and molecular targets pertinent to cancer of the disaccharides derived from the primary carrageenans. Analyses of pharmacological properties predicted by the pkCSM and SwissADME servers indicated that the disaccharides possess a favorable pharmacokinetic profile, although they encounter permeability challenges primarily due to their high polarity and low lipophilicity. Target prediction using SwissTarget and PPB2 identified five carbonic anhydrases, which are also targets of oncology drugs, as common targets for the disaccharides. Molecular docking performed with AutoDock Vina revealed that the binding energies of the disaccharides with carbonic anhydrases were comparable to or greater than those of existing drugs that target these lyases. Notably, six of the complexes formed exhibited interactions between the disaccharides and the zinc cofactor, which represents a primary mechanism of inhibition for these targets. Furthermore, molecular dynamics simulations conducted using GROMACS demonstrated a stable interaction between the disaccharides and carbonic anhydrases. These findings offer new insights into the pharmacological properties and mechanisms of action of carrageenan-derived disaccharides, highlighting their potential for further exploration in clinical trials and experimental studies.